Shane Simpson: Port Kembla gun dealer jailed over illegal supply of 267 firearms
A Wollongong gun dealer who illegally supplied more than 260 guns on the black market, one of which was used in a high profile bikie shooting, has been jailed.
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A Port Kembla firearms dealer who trafficked hundreds of guns on the black market, one of which was used in a high profile bikie shooting, has been jailed for 13 years.
Shane James Simpson faced Wollongong District Court for sentencing on Monday, after spending six years running an illegal gun dealing operation from his Wentworth Street shop, Simpson Sports.
The 48-year-old father-of-three has been linked to 276 black market pistols, after detectives spent months searching through years worth of dodgy NSW Firearms Registry records.
On Monday, Judge Andrew Haesler sentenced Simpson to 13 years jail with a non-parole period of eight years and six months, saying his criminal activity put the community at serious risk.
In court earlier this month, Simpson claimed he was forced into the illegal racket after an unknown man showed him a video of another man being shot in the back of the head with a gun which he had partly assisted in assembling a few weeks prior.
“The video showed the barrel being pushed to the back of someone’s neck and the trigger being pulled…” he said at the time.
“The firearm went off, everything. They used that firearm to actually shoot someone.”
Simpson’s six years of illegal firearm supply began around six weeks later, when he claimed he received a handwritten letter that read “you know what we’re capable of. We know you have a wife and kids. We want hand guns.”
Following the letter, Simpson claimed he started receiving phone calls at his shop from unknown people, who told him to leave various guns in a one-way street behind an abandoned shop across the road.
Before dropping them off, he claimed he’d use an angle grinder to remove the serial numbers, in an effort to hide his involvement.
Simpson told the court that when he dropped off the firearms, he would find a bag of cash in the same spot. He said an amount for the guns was never agreed upon, and that the amount left for him was often minimal, and only enough to purchase second-hand guns.
He told the court he never saw anyone face-to-face, and did not know who was supplying the guns to.
On Monday, Judge Haesler said while Simpson was enlisted in a “serious criminal organisation”, there was no evidence to say he suffered a loss as Simpson described, or a profitable gain from the sale of the guns.
“Assertions he made no money from the sales cannot be established beyond reasonable doubt,” he said.
In handing down his sentence, Judge Haesler noted Simpson never reported the matter to police because he “felt trapped” and feared for his family.
“(Simpson’s) concerns were for his own and family’s safety, not what would be done with the pistols,” he said.
“ … There seems no other explanation as to why a law-abiding citizen would do what he did without threat, but that fails to explain why he didn’t stop.”
Judge Haesler also noted that just 10 of the guns Simpson supplied over the six years had been recovered, with the remaining 250-or-so still posed a “major threat” to the community.
The most high-profile discovery of one of the guns was a Glock 17A pistol allegedly used in a drive-by at Greystanes last February and again in a fatal bikie shooting at Doonside in May.
In January, Simpson pleaded guilty to seven ongoing gun supply charges representing each year his operation was active.
He will be eligible for release to parole in October 2027.